HELLO AND HAPPY WORLD CP DAY 2019!!! As some of you may know World Cerebral Palsy day is my favourite day of the year, and I am so excited to finally share with you what I’ve been up to for World CP Day 2019! I cannot express how overwhelmed I have been by the response from my friends and family on previous World CP day’s, my social media has just been filled with the most amazing messages and if it wasn’t for these messages I wouldn’t have got such amazing memories to look back on. However, this only makes it harder, to be creative and try to top previous years. I highly doubt that my challenge this year will go the same way as my piano video did last year (as that was one crazy weekend) but a challenged is what you lovely people asked for so a challenge is what you got!
So if you haven’t gathered from my title this year I was challenged to catch the bus in my wheelchair- which if you’ve read my previous blog on restricted independence you will know that this is rather daunting for me, and gives me great anxiety.
Not only was I anxious the occupational therapist in me was overthinking everything- which in this case didn’t help! As part of my first year, we had to give a presentation of all the skills used in a particular activity and the activity I did was getting on the bus- if I’d have known that I was going to do this challenge I probably would have picked a different activity! But despite my brain going into overdrive my Auntie had set me this challenge and I was not going to let her down!
With my nerves in mind, we had a plan! My friend and I would go out on the bus to a local retail park, on the way there my friend helped me but, on the way back, I had to catch the bus independently without a word from my friend! Don’t get me wrong this challenge would have been a lot better if I could say to you that I did it entirely on my own but I didn’t. One of the reasons I didn’t despite my anxiety is that my friend said ”If I wouldn’t have been here what would be different?”… After thinking about this question, I answered ”Well, nothing.” She had made me realised that if I’d have wanted to I could have done it and I did do it on the way back as whilst getting on the bus my friend didn’t say a word to the bus driver I did it all alone in which she said ”Challenge complete.” and the challenge was complete and once I was on that bus I felt absolutely fine!
From this challenge, I certainly feel a whole lot better about getting on the bus, because it isn’t as scary as I think. Will I be using the bus a lot more? Probably not. If the bus was my only option, would I feel a lot better getting on it? Certainly! This is all that matters!
I love World CP Day so much because to me it means a great deal, Cerebral Palsy is such a board term and it’s hard to know how CP affects an individual unless you are close to that individual, therefore, World CP Day allows me to spread awareness and educate individuals on what this disability entails. Each year I want to do something different whether this is a challenge, piano video or just a blog talking about something I don’t normally talk about because I want to continue to raise awareness so people can understand that my disability, just like all disabilities, is so much more than what people see!
Happy World CP Day 2019!
Georgia
@georgiavine4213
@GeorgiaVineOT
Well done you 👍
Thank you!